Over consumption of alcoholic beverages before and during a flight is just one of the contributory factors in air rage incidents. However, IMHO all of these air rage problems really started increasing in number when airlines started to prohibit smoking on flights. How many of those people involved are smokers? Quite a lot I would imagine. Ten hours on an aircraft without the opportunity of "lighting up" is a very long time for some people to go without a cigarette; This increases anxiety levels, and coupled with the vast quantities of booze that is available which relaxes inhibitions, the result is air rage. In addition boredom, being treated like cattle, and the riff raff element that have access to air travel these days, are all contributory elements too. The answer? Well bring back smoking "zones" on flights (yes I know the smoke drifts around anyway!) or carry electic cow prods to maintain some discipline if things start to get out of hand!!